During these unprecedented times, when staying at home is of the utmost importance, us here at The AU Review are going to be doing everything we can to help readers live their best lives, indoors.
As with many other media companies who typically focus on getting folks out and about, we’re shifting to adapt to the necessary lock-downs taking place all over the world. One way we’ll be doing so is simply by sharing our favourite recipes.
Over the next few weeks (or months, who knows) we’ll be publishing the cocktail and food recipes that we find most exciting, so that when you aren’t ordering in to support your favourite venues, you’ll know enough to quickly throw together some top-class concoctions.
Fratelli Fresh’s Spinach & Ricotta Ravioli
Reliable Italian eatery and providore Fratelli Fresh have wisely placed more weight onto their grocer and bottle shop functions as the COVID-19 need to stay at home continues. Their DIY cocktail and ready-made family meal packs are flying off shelves just as fast as their newly introduced pantry staples. If you’re going for the latter, you’re going to need to know how to turn all those ingredients into a restaurant-quality meal. Hence, we’ve sourced Fratelli Fresh’s comprehensive, made-from-scratch recipe for a light spinach and ricotta ravioli.
Ingredients – Pasta Dough
- 200g 00 flour
- 100g Durum wheat semolina flour (plus extra for dusting)
- 4 eggs
Ingredients – Filling
- 1 clove garlic, finely sliced
- 40g parmesan, grated
- 400g spinach leaves
- 250g ricotta
- 1 egg yolk
- Pinch of grated nutmeg
Ingredients – Sauce
- 4 fresh plum tomatoes
- 1 clove garlic, finely sliced
- 4 sprigs basil, stems removed and leaves torn
- Knob of butter
- Parmesan, shaved for garnish
- Extra virgin olive oil, for cooking
- Salt and black pepper, for seasoning
Method
- To make the pasta, mix both flours together in a bowl. Whisk three eggs together then add
to the flour, mixing to combine. Knead the dough until silky-smooth in texture. Relax in the
fridge for an hour. - To make the filling, sauté garlic slowly over low heat. Increase heat, add spinach and cook
until leaves are wilted. Remove spinach from pan, squeeze dry and chop roughly. Put
spinach in a large bowl, add ricotta, grated Parmesan, egg yolk and nutmeg. Mix to combine. - Roll out the pasta to its thinnest point using a pasta machine (or very carefully with a rolling
pin). Cut pasta into 1½-inch squares and place a tablespoon of filling in the centre of each
square, leaving a border of pasta. - Whisk the last egg and brush the border of the pasta square with the egg wash. Fold over to
make filled triangles, gently pressing the edges to seal. - With the folded side facing you (and the pointed bit facing away from you) grasp the two
corners of the triangle and pinch them together, to create the ravioli. Dust a tray with
semolina flour, and place the ravioli on the tray as you prepare the rest of the dish. - To make the tomato sauce, blanch, peel, de-seed and dice the fresh tomatoes. Heat a dash
of olive oil in large sauté pan, add the garlic and diced tomatoes and simmer on a low heat
for 10-15 minutes, gently pressing down on the tomatoes to help them break up a little.
Once the tomatoes are cooked, add the torn basil leaves, leaving a few leaves for garnish.
Remove from the heat. - To cook the ravioli, bring a saucepan of water (seasoned with a little salt) to the boil and
gently drop in the ravioli. When the ravioli float to the surface, after about 2-4 minutes, they
are ready. - Gently remove ravioli from the water with a slotted spoon and add to the tomato sauce. Add
the cold butter to emulsify. Season with salt and black pepper. - Serve the ravioli and sauce garnished with a few basil leaves, Parmesan shavings, and drizzle
of extra virgin olive oil.
For any ingredient that may be harder to find, you’ll most likely be able to source from the Fratelli Fresh Grocer website here.
